As treaties and trade agreements are implemented this year, more U.S. companies are looking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for fresh business opportunities. Fortunately, a whole host of logistics and transportation service providers are laying the groundwork to overcome inherent infrastructure challenges.

Today, U.S. trucking companies face more regulations than any time in history—and they claim this “regulatory tsunami” is putting the clamp on U.S. productivity. During this session shippers will gain a better understanding of the current state of trucking regulations (HOS & CSA) and the impact they're having on capacity and rates.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Lest shippers believe that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is fully on board with the new “tentative” contract agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association, consider what happened at the Port of Oakland this week.

LadeAS, led by legendary speed sailor, Terje Lade, has introduced “Vindskip,” (or “wind ship”) designed to take advantage of the wind for propulsion, along with advance computer technology enabling weather forecasting and route optimization.

As global supply chains become more complex and detailed over time, there still remains a fairly significant disconnect, when it comes to shippers, specifically retailers and manufacturers, counting on outdated tools and ineffective processes in managing their supply chains. That was a chief takeaway from a study recently issued by supply chain and logistics software and technology provider JDA Software Group Inc., entitled “JDA Vision 2015 Supply Chain Market Study.”

We asked manufacturing experts what the 10 smart practices are for improving enterprise asset management. Download our short 10 step checklist to see what practices you should employ to improve your enterprise asset management.

Even with the myriad challenges that stemmed from the West Coast port labor disruption, the most recent edition of the Cass Freight Index Report from Cass Information Systems found that both freight shipments and expenditures both showed annual and sequential growth in February.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Truckload spot volume and rates for the month of February were down on an annual basis in February, according to the DAT North American Freight Index.
DAT said that spot market freight availability in February was down for the second month in a row, which it described as a “seasonal pattern that mimics the first quarter of 2014 but at a higher volume.”

The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported this week that the average price per gallon of diesel gasoline increased for the fifth straight week, rising 0.8 cents to $2.944 per gallon.

While the months-long West Coast port labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union reached a cease fire, with the parties coming to terms on a tentative new five-year labor contract late last month, the subsequent cargo backlog at United States West Coast ports is expected to see cargo volumes head up, according to the most recent edition of the Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.